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The Jets made a trade. They sent safety Calvin Pryor to Cleveland for LB Demario Davis. Let’s take a look at this move from all angles.
This move that made an awful lot of sense.
This was a really smart trade.
Regardless of what Todd Bowles said the other day, Pryor clearly wasn’t in the plans.
Bowles talked Tuesday about how picking safeties in the first two rounds had nothing to do with Pryor.
“We have seven draft picks and there can be seven positions or less that you get a draft pick taken,” Bowles said.
“You just work on doing your job and that takes care of itself. We’re going to draft people every year.”
Interesting way of looking at it.
I didn’t buy it, but it was certainly a creative way of spinning it.
Aside from the rankings on their value board, another reason the Jets picked a pair of instinctive safeties in the first two rounds was how bad their pass coverage was last year.
And Pryor was a part of the issue.
He’s a see-and-go reactor which is a problem at safety. A see-and-go reactor tends to react to things after they happen, as opposed to seeing what is coming. He was often a tick late reacting. As a safety, you really need to have a feel for what is about to unfold before it happens. Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye were those kind of guys in college. We will see if they can do it in the NFL. That near pick that Adams almost had on Christian Hackenberg on Tuesday, was illustrative of excellent instincts. He jumped the route.
Pryor is a big-time hitter, and deserves credit for his toughness. The guy is an unflinching hitter. Whether the target was 180 or 280, Pryor would come flying up and throw his body at the guy. Not everyone does that.
He was good around the line-of-scrimmage, in the box, if you will. But if you pick a safety in the first round, he can’t just play in the box. You pick safeties in the first round because they are strong at pass and run defense.
Pryor just never took that next step as a cover guy.
Cleveland defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, of Bounty-gate fame, is going to love Pryor as a hitter. He will probably limit his coverage assignments.
Getting Davis back in return for Pryor was a smart move by Mr. Coffee.
First off, he comes in knowing the system. He played in Todd’s defense two years ago.
Secondly, he fits the Jets defense better than Cleveland. The Browns are moving to a 4-3 this year under Williams. Davis is best suited as a 3-4 ILB. He’s a tackling machine as a 3-4 ILB. We all saw that when he was with the Jets.
Davis is a great leader and terrific locker room guy. Considering the Jets’ football brass is focused like a laser on improving their culture this off-season, this is a good time to bring Davis back. He’s an alpha dog.
A lot of fans I’ve interacted with on Twitter about this trade have ripped Davis as a cover guy. I have a few things to say about this.
Is he great in coverage? No. He’s average. But you know what, so much was made last year of how the Jets improved their pass coverage last year by adding Darron Lee and moving on from Davis. It didn’t happen. Perhaps Lee improves in Year Two, but last year, the Jets linebacker coverage wasn’t any better than the year before.
Davis is sometimes get hurt in coverage by his stiff hips. It’s hard for him to cut at times. It’s not his fault, it’s how he’s built.
But a big problem for the Jets’ linebacker in coverage the last couple of years has been the team’s pedestrian edge pass rush. You ask any inside linebackers to hold up for 6-7 seconds, most of them are going to get beat.
I think Davis is better than David Harris in coverage at this point. Harris hasn’t looked great this spring in coverage. I saw him get beat deep badly by Austin Seferian-Jenkins a couple of weeks ago.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Davis challenges Harris for the ILB job next to Lee if the Jets put the anointing oil away.
So I like this trade. Let’s say Davis isn’t given a chance to beat out Harris due to politics, he certainly gives the Jets a quality backup ILB with a ton of starting experience.
Good trade.
June 2, 2017
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